Turning Tides (28 page)

“You forget, Deborah. History is written by the winner. There will be no one left to tell your version of the story.” He blinked, and her clothes were on fire.

The room took a moment to inhale, to accept what we were seeing, to choose a course of action.

Then battle was joined.

The fire only lasted a second before Deborah was drenched with water. It was impossible to know if she’d been the one to call it. I didn’t think she had many friends in the room, but Lana rose and stood beside her, and David followed. Somewhere, in the back of my mind, I understood they were only following the law. They likely believed they were making the right choice.

The rest of my mind thought it was a betrayal.

Josiah didn’t have a chance to strike again before Deborah retaliated, sending a thick stream of water soaring into his nostrils and mouth. He coughed, but she was relentless, filling his lungs with water until he was unable to steal a single breath. It didn’t matter how fast he burned the water off. She had a limitless supply, and her focus never wavered.

Someone else jumped in, fighting to draw the water from his lungs and allow Josiah time for a breath. Someone powerful enough to neutralize the strongest water in the room. My mother and Grams, hands still locked and all their attention on Deborah, fought to save my father. As each stream of water rushed toward Josiah, they pulled another from his lungs, giving him precious seconds of oxygen.

I’d only fought one other elemental in earnest, and I’d killed him. I’d hoped to never do so again, but at least this time there was a key difference. This time, I wasn’t alone.

Josiah now stood in front of me, my very own elemental shield. Mac remained on one side, and Sera moved to the other. They wore matching determined expressions. They would fight for me to the bitter end, if need be.

I took quick stock. On our side, we had the most powerful fire elemental I’d ever met and my sister, who could more than hold her own. Grams could easily take Michael. My mother and aunts were full waters, and though they were younger than Deborah, there were more of them.

On their side, they had a loopy half-water, her grudge-bearing stone boyfriend, one full-blooded council member, and possibly the strongest water in existence. By all accounts, they could not win.

No one had bothered to give them the memo.

Deborah showed no hint of fatigue as she continued to pour water into Josiah’s lungs. It kept my mother and Grams busy on defense, leaving no one available to help when Deborah split the stream in two and sent the other half toward Sera.

The water forced its way through the seam of her lips, the pressure too great to withstand. Water flooded her mouth and slid down her windpipe.

When she looked at me, she wasn’t scared. She was pissed off, the pure anger of a fire. It didn’t call to me. It shouted my name while stamping its foot and waving an enormous red flag.

I was so close to the edge. If I let the fire loose, I might never come back.

If I didn’t let the fire loose, I couldn’t battle Deborah.

I don’t recall making the choice. I only knew the fire rushed through me, filling every cell in my body, ecstatic to be free. It demanded to be fed, and there was a target before me, one who would kill my sister and father if no one stopped her.

She was one of the oldest and most powerful waters in existence.

Me, I was a fucking dual magic, capable of harnessing two elements and bending them to my will. Also, I might be nuts.

The worst thing about battling a crazy person? You never knew what they would do next.

I didn’t try to light Deborah on fire. Her clothes still bore black marks from Josiah’s effort, but she’d doused the fire too quickly for it to do any real damage.

Instead, I enclosed her in a circle of flames, and drew them high, blocking her line of vision. She had no choice but to release Sera and Josiah, bringing the water back to herself in an effort to douse the flames.

I couldn’t let her do it. She was trapped, and she needed to remain that way.

I sent a silent prayer into the void, that what I was about to do wouldn’t seal my fate. While the fire burnt, I reached for my water magic. It hesitated, its uncertainty almost palpable.

Once, I’d been unable to use both elements simultaneously. Anger would trigger my fire and block access to the water.

Then I’d needed to use both, to save Mac, and I’d discovered the secret. All I needed to do was isolate the elements from each other and risk furthering the schism to my psyche.

Hey, crazy still beat dead.

I imagined the fire was limited to the right side of my body, and when it resisted, I slammed it into my arm, my leg, my torso, freeing up the left side for the water magic to roam free. As it did, something inside me disconnected. My compassion, or my empathy. Whatever part of me chose not to kill others, that part was silenced as I discovered what it truly meant to be a dual magic.

All this took a second, perhaps less. The water surged forward, grasping the waves Deborah was drawing toward the fire. I yanked and felt resistance from her magic, her full blood still stronger than my half.

The water wasn’t enough on its own, so I added the fire magic. It boosted its power, pushing it harder and faster than it could move on its own. It was almost easy to steal Deborah’s stream of water and send it toward my mother and Grams. I trusted they would keep it from her.

The two elements danced together in my body, more power than I’d have believed my skin and bones and blood could hold, and yet I did not crack. I grew to fit the power, my body expanding and stretching to make room for it all. I was shocked to discover my clothes still fit, my shoes remained on my feet. Based on how I felt, I ought to be nine feet tall.

This was why. This was why no one ever sought a cure for dual magics. It was why we were a threat to be eliminated.

We were pure power. We were stronger than the oldest of the old ones. Compared to Deborah, I should have been a mere speck, easily flicked and forgotten.

Instead, I was going to destroy her.

I made the flames spin around her, a deadly promise of the power I wielded, and I smiled.

Of course, the old ones also might have wanted us dead because dual magics really seemed to enjoy killing people.

Just one more, I whispered. I would find a way to control myself, but first I needed just one more death.

There was pressure on my left hand, squeezing so hard I could no longer move my fingers.

“Aidan, come back. God damn it, Aidan. Answer me.”

I twisted my neck and was surprised I needed to look up, into brown eyes that told stories and promises I still hoped to hear someday.

“Your eyes.” The words were low, a horrified whisper. He’d never seen me like this, I remembered. “They’re so dark. Almost slate. Aidan, this isn’t right. I can feel it, too. The water, it’s not stable.”

“It’s who I am. It’s who I’ve always been.” It just took me this long to realize it.

I was ready to end this. I tightened the circle of flames around Deborah.

I yelped, a sharp pain on my right arm demanding my attention. “What the hell?” I turned to see Sera, face set in harsh lines, pinching my arm over and over again, her fingers practically meeting through the walls of skin and muscle.

“Knock this shit off, H2O.” I sensed her own magic then, reaching for the flames I controlled and trying to push me out of the way.

She wouldn’t succeed, not unless I chose to let go. I wasn’t ready to do that.

“Let the fires handle this.” I knew that voice. I knew the certainty and confidence I’d borrowed every day of our friendship. She was right.

I didn’t want her to be. “No.” I whispered the word, but the force of my refusal was so loud I might as well have shouted it. I held fast to the fire, ready to finish what I’d begun.

I didn’t get the chance before I found myself on the library floor, struggling under the weight of a well-muscled otter shifter.

“Gotcha, Brook,” said a grinning Miriam. “It didn’t look like you were responding to logic, so I went with something a little different. Did I ever mention I won a national flag football title?”

The tackle might as well have been a reset button, shocking my magic loose. My hold on both the flames and the water lessened, the magic flowing back into my core.

I almost felt like myself again. I pushed weakly at Miriam’s shoulder, but she didn’t budge. “I thought you didn’t tackle in flag football.”

“I like to experiment with the rules. If I let you up, do you promise not to fucking kill anyone?”

I looked around the room. True to her word, Sera had taken control of the fire, and I suspected Josiah was adding his power to hers. They’d widened the flames, keeping Rivers trapped. She would be warm, but alive.

Water hovered above her, being yanked to and fro by my family and Deborah. Lana still fought on the side that didn’t seem interested in burning people to death, and I was no longer sure I could blame her for that.

“You don’t let a girl have any fun,” I muttered to Miriam, but this time when I pushed on her shoulder, she stood and offered me a hand up.

The room stilled enough to watch me, their eyes telling me they thought my claim of being a stable dual magic had been rather overstated.

“How does this end?” I asked the room.

“She dies,” said Josiah, as calmly as he would tell me what he ate for lunch. “She has to.”

“We can’t just keep killing everyone who knows what I am.”

He turned to me with one eyebrow lifted, and in that moment he looked so like Sera I almost loved him, this man who lived by his own moral code, who’d given me my sister, who would literally find a way to move mountains if that’s what it took to save his daughters. He wasn’t a good man, but at least he was on my side.

“Do you have another option?” Josiah asked.

I didn’t. Some people could be trusted with my secret. Deborah was not one of them.

And yet, I couldn’t speak the words. A moment ago, I’d been ready to kill her myself, but I couldn’t condemn her, not when I was in control of my own mind.

Josiah didn’t wait for my permission. As I watched, the flames intensified, the heat felt throughout the room.

“This is barbaric.” David stood, glaring at each of us.

He was right. The room was about to watch a woman burn alive.

And once she was dead, Josiah would move on to Michael, and Lana, and David. No threat to my life would leave the room unscathed.

“Stop.” It was my voice, though I didn’t recall making the decision to speak. “No more.”

The flames dipped, and Josiah frowned at me. “Have you thought of another way?” It sounded like he was humoring me.

“Pull the flames back.” When he didn’t, I looked at Sera. She nodded and fought Josiah for control of the fire. Her attention was fixed on the flames, but her features were marked with sadness. She knew what I was about to say.

It was what needed saying.

“No more death. No more protecting me by destroying others.”

Josiah began to protest, but I talked over him. This wasn’t up for debate.

“You know this is the right call.” I spoke to my mother, Grams, and Sera. I met my aunts’ sad eyes, and even dared a glance at the others, those I’d just fought against. “Josiah can’t keep killing in my name. It would destroy me. And if that wasn’t reason enough, it’s only a matter of time before I start doing the killing myself.”

My mother shook her head, but words failed her.

“It’s the truth, and while I still have the capacity to regret my actions, I have to do the right thing. I don’t want to be a killer. Please, honor my choice. Take me to Eureka, put me in a room across from Trent, and let me have my trial. We can make the case for treatment instead of execution. But no more hiding, and no more killing. I can’t take any more.”

My throat closed on the words as I finished, and a strong arm wrapped around my shoulders. I leaned into Mac, borrowing his strength.

No one was happy with my decision, but no one fought it.

Sighing heavily, Josiah walked up to Deborah, now standing in a ring of burnt carpet. My eyes widened when he held out his hand. “No hard feelings, old girl?”

They turned downright bug-like when she took his hand in hers. “You were protecting your own, Josiah. Though I don’t agree with your choices, I understand them. And, as everyone is still alive, no elemental laws were broken tonight. I see no reason to take this further.”

And they worried that I was the crazy one. Millennia of life might give one a different perspective on life and death, but this was still unexpected. I was starting to think, if my time in Eureka got me far away from these batshit old ones, it would be time well spent.

“What the hell is wrong with you people?” asked Miriam, echoing my thoughts.

All our eyes were on two of the most powerful creatures in the world as they forgave each other for attempted murder.

No one was watching David.

We had one warning, a small cry from a tinny speaker. I stepped toward the computer, to ask Vivian to repeat herself, and almost missed seeing what she’d already spotted.

The letter opener in David’s right hand, just as it plunged between Josiah’s ribs and deep into his heart.

Screams and gasps and magic filled the room, everyone trying to stop him as the letter opener was withdrawn and inserted again and again, piercing the heart twice more.

David was soaked, covered in the water with which the others had tried to slow him, but he was smiling, a grim, satisfied smile as Josiah fell to the floor.

Some things, even magic couldn’t cure.

His eyes were open, wide and black and so like Sera’s, except now they were empty. A man who’d practically glowed with the energy that fueled his every movement was still, and forever would be.

Beside me, Sera didn’t sob. She wasn’t there yet. She drew short, jagged breaths, her shocked body struggling to remember how to survive. I felt her grief, waves of horror and disbelief that this man we’d believed was practically immortal was gone.

It took seconds for my sister’s life to irrevocably change, for a pain that would never truly heal to take root in her soul.